Jobs created from the forest sector go beyond just wood products, and local businesses in Campbell River are leaving their mark on the global forest industry in innovative ways. In fact, the expertise accumulated in over a century of timber harvesting has strongly positioned local companies as global leaders in the manufacturing of forestry equipment.

One such company is T-MAR Industries. Established in 1984 by George Lambert and Gord Olafsen, this local success story has since grown into a one-stop shop for high-quality resource-sector equipment.

Logging is often conducted in difficult terrain requiring specialized machinery for safe and responsible timber harvesting, and that’s where T-MAR’s equipment comes in. Their state-of-the-art yarder machines, grapples, winches, and machine components are designed to work even in the most challenging terrains. In fact, steep-slope logging equipment is one of T-MAR’s specialties.

Today, T-MAR has grown into a team of 50, including skilled machinists, fabricators, heavy mechanics, and engineers. Their success can be attributed to the company’s ongoing vision to create innovative products. As their website says “there’s always something new going on at T-MAR.”

Another Campbell River success story is the York Machine Shop. What started out as a small machine repair business for local mills and resource extraction operations in the 1980s has since become a leader in portable machine tools.

York Machine Shop built much of their success by identifying a niche market within their existing operations.  Since many repair jobs were in remote logging sites, York Machine Shop started to design and build its own portable machine tools that could be used for repairs directly on-site. York’s made-in-BC solutions for local logging operations became such a hit that the Campbell River business now exports around the globe. In fact, exports now account for 65% of its business.